Certified, purebred, best boy

Hisuian Growlithe:

And we're back at it again with new Pokemon! It seems like at this rate, every new game might be giving us new designs if we're now seeing a substantial handful of new Pokemon appearing in even a mid-generational game like Legends Arceus. Which we're all for, provided again, this allows the design team to not be rushed into churning out designs too quickly. Once again, we'll be starting with regional variants, which actually make up the majority of the new designs this time around.

Hisuian Growlithe managed to hit off with a lot of fans falling in love with the thing, and it's pretty great, generally speaking! Maybe not mind-blowing, but we like that it's a dog with such big, bushy fur that its eyes are covered. Gives it just an extra oomph of personality!

This fur is also what to thank for its Fire/Rock typing. Apparently, volcanic activity is what's caused its hair to have sedimentary rocks in it, giving it a new type. We think it could've been given more to look more obviously Rock type, because all there really is, is the horn on its head and it being a dirtier orange color than normal Growlithe, but fair enough to represent Rock type with softer-looking Pokemon every now and then.

Look, Growlithe. Everything the light touches is our kingdom.

Hisuian Arcanine:

Arcanine is where the design gets a little confused, sadly. While not outright bad or anything, its shape language is mixed up between preferring softer shapes and spikier shapes, which we feel like it should've leaned into the rounder ones to be a better alternative to regular Arcanine. This mish-mash also has a possibly unintended effect of us not being sure if its mane is meant to still be soft fur or if it's now hard like rock. It LOOKS inflexible enough, but at the same time, it holds onto more curly shapes which just end up looking like fur again.

And it's also a shame Arcanine no longer has fur going over its eyes. It feels odd because that was practically the biggest reason why fans got attached to Hisuian Growlithe so much, but then here the feature is just dropped completely. And kinda just replaced with a 'do that looks like rich people wigs for some reason. No thanks, we'd rather our Pokemon not look like George Washington.

A big reason why we wish it just focused on softer shapes is because those are easily the best parts of it here. The way the fur around its hind legs and tail look like billowing, stylized volcanic smoke is pretty cool, and the combination of burnt orange and dark grey is pretty neat. Overall, Arcanine here is a pretty usual mix of "cool but not remarkable".